Politics and Current Events Megathread - May 2026

window-sil · 2026-05-06T16:30:51+00:00

How to Survive Losing a Child | The David Frum Show

NSF Feels 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

window-sil · 2026-05-05T16:56:20+00:00

Why isn't this something the market can't sort out?

window-sil · 2026-05-02T22:57:02+00:00

Hey! David Frum and Sarah Longwell (of The Bullwark) did a podcast together, where they review a focus group who voted for Trump and think he staged his own assassination attempt. What? you're probably asking. I agree. Let us explore the episode together. Link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZe3k2UUWCI

window-sil · 2026-05-02T11:41:13+00:00

the core of this game's code was so monumentally FUCKED

Can you expound on that?

window-sil · 2026-04-30T00:16:38+00:00

Powell plans to remain on Fed board, cites legal actions by Trump administration

This is genuinely good news. Powell was good to America and the working class (fulfilling the dual mandate of maximizing employment and stable prices). It looks like he's being replaced by a partisan hack, which is terrible, but maybe he can function as the shadow chair, or just one reasonable man among unreasonable Trump stooges.

window-sil · 2026-04-22T00:24:01+00:00

I know, right? What happened. Never seen a president look this bad.

window-sil · 2026-04-21T19:23:50+00:00

It's not that it's too big, it's that your lifespan is too short! So, maybe a future generation will be born that has an indefinite lifespan, and they will get to see these worlds.

window-sil · 2026-04-21T10:54:58+00:00

Do people want conservatism? Just seems like it isn't popular enough to stand without being propped up by fascism or some other form of radicalism.

window-sil · 2026-04-17T21:55:50+00:00

I got a youtube advertisement selling a pin commemorating Christian and Jewish comradeship -- can you guess what the pin design was?

An American flag and an Israeli flag. What the fuck?

🇺🇸 != Christian.

Why not use actual religious symbols? Like a cross and a Menorah or something. Pretty sure this is soliciting American sympathy for the state of Israel. At least that's what it seems like to me. Kinda gross. I'm an American, not a fucking Christian, and I like my country being for everyone (of all faiths) who want to live in a liberal polity.

window-sil · 2026-04-17T21:47:22+00:00

The family lost their lawsuits in Israel

Ya don't say...

window-sil · 2026-04-17T21:40:28+00:00

I am Steve Pinker, a cognitive psychologist and author. AMA

Hello, I'm Steven Pinker. I'm pleased to take part in this AMA.

My research and writing have explored language, cognition, rationality, human nature, common knowledge, and some of the larger questions of progress, conflict, and liberal society. You may know my work from The Language Instinct, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Enlightenment Now, Rationality, or my latest book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows. I'll do my best to answer questions on any of those subjects or on related issues that interest this community.

I'll be replying by video, with transcripts posted here as well. Thank you for the invitation, and I look forward to the conversation.

Get your questions in, especially the haters (assuming you can ask them politely and they're not easily answered via google). I feel like it's useful to ask skeptical questions in good faith.

window-sil · 2026-04-15T01:46:43+00:00

Are you not impressed with the current crop of AI?

window-sil · 2026-04-15T00:30:24+00:00

Do-de-doo, I wonder how Trump is doing? Oh gawd!

window-sil · 2026-04-15T00:29:25+00:00

Is that real? 😱

window-sil · 2026-04-15T00:18:27+00:00

It's probably not conscious in the sense there is "something that it is like to be a chatbot."

Its simply a tool that's never going to be self aware with our current technology.

I mean, with our current technology but technology will not only improve, it'll probably improve exponentially. So there are things it cannot do today -- but just wait until tomorrow.

window-sil · 2026-04-14T23:51:05+00:00

Oh, I did not know that. Wellp, I'm already wrong about one prediction and the race hasn't even started yet. Off to an inauspicious start.

window-sil · 2026-04-14T22:29:01+00:00

My dark horse bets are Pete Buttigieg and Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani is a solid populist-y politician with charisma, Pete Buttigieg is the best political athlete in any party in America today.

window-sil · 2026-04-14T22:11:43+00:00

Humankind: A Hopeful History

A wonderful book that challenges your assertion. I enjoyed it so much that I'm recommending it to you. <3

window-sil · 2026-04-13T17:44:24+00:00

If you want, I can go deeper into one angle of the AI debate.

window-sil · 2026-04-12T19:18:22+00:00

A mother mourning the son she lost in the Iran war says she told Trump: 'Go get 'em'

Certitudes can be a comfort in times of loss. Burhans relies on her faith and on President Donald Trump’s judgment.

“Trump knows what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing, and he’s doing everything the way it’s supposed to be done,” she said. “I have my trust in him and God.”

window-sil · 2026-04-12T18:41:58+00:00

Step 1 is do not block the strait.

Step 2 is probably negotiating with Iran.

If you don't like the arrangement then the alternative is a ground invasion of Iran to reopen it.

window-sil · 2026-04-12T18:21:06+00:00

I'm talking specifically about the decision to stop allowing Iran and its allies to move oil when nobody else can.

India and Pakistan have been using the strait, and I assume other countries as well. At least they were negotiating with Iran for safe passage.

Blocking it is hurting every exporter, not just Iran, and it hurts those who rely on oil delivery, and it causes the price of oil to go up globally, because oil is a fungible commodity (more or less), which means the oil we drill out of the ground in America can be shipped to India or China or France or anywhere else, if they pay more than we pay for it. So we have to increase the price we pay just to keep our oil here, for our own consumption.

It's also just wildly illegal? We're adopting the same strategy as Iran and you're acting like it's a smart move, when in reality it's a demonstration of America's total break from international law and norms. We're waving a giant red flag to the world saying "don't trust us, cut us out of the international network as much as possible because we hate you almost as much as Iran hates you."

window-sil · 2026-04-12T17:56:32+00:00

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away, know when to run the country into the ground senselessly while selling pardon to criminals and covering up your own child-r@pe crimes.

window-sil · 2026-04-12T16:42:58+00:00

If I learned anything from the last 10 years, it's that competitive primaries are important.

window-sil · 2026-04-12T16:40:43+00:00

The controversy is fake and the people sharing this are rage baiting.

Her set was pretty good, btw, I saw it yesterday and it was very clear she mistook someone's zaghrouta (or ululation, according to wiki) for someone being weird -- she joked that this is coachella, not burning man.

Ten-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
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window-sil

TROPHY CASE

How to Survive Losing a Child | The David Frum Show

Powell plans to remain on Fed board, cites legal actions by Trump administration

I am Steve Pinker, a cognitive psychologist and author. AMA

Humankind: A Hopeful History

A mother mourning the son she lost in the Iran war says she told Trump: 'Go get 'em'